Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral... [read more]

You have to admire the chutzpah of the Palestinians. After killing three of our envoys in Gaza last year and chanting "Death to America" on any occasion they can find, they turn around and hit us up for cash:

The Palestinians expect a large aid package from the United States and other donor countries to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, the Palestinian foreign minister said Thursday. ...

In the event of a Gaza withdrawal, "the Americans should be ready with the World Bank and other donors to make massive economic support for the Palestinian Authority," Shaath said in interview with Israel Radio. He did not give a sum.

The Palestinians, already heavily dependent on international aid, are hoping for more money to help rebuild an economy shattered in more than three years of fighting with Israel. Shaath said the funds were needed for "relief, reconstruction, economic activities, labor and job creation, and others."

Shaath was quoted as saying he is aware of American expectations that in return for the aid, the Palestinians crack down on militant groups and arrest those behind the bombing of an U.S. convoy in Gaza in October.

The US has already paid our millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority since Oslo -- money that supported the same structure that runs Yasser Arafat's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a suicide-bombing terrorist apparatus that has claimed the lives of Israeli citizens by the score. This demand differs in no way from a mob protection scheme; pay us and there won't be trouble. What, you were surprised by that pizza-parlor bombing? Pay us more and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. A bus blew up? Well, that was some other outfit; pay us more and we'll reason with them.

I have an answer for that. In the words of Michael Corleone in Godfather Part II: "This is my offer: nothing. Not one dollar." As long as Arafat and his terrorist henchmen Abu Smith, Abu Jones, and Abu Whatever are in charge, you don't get one thin dime from the American taxpayer. When you hand over the people who killed our envoys, when you arrest the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, when you lock up the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and when the bombings stop in Israel and everywhere else -- then we'll talk. Until then, you get nothing. Zilch. Zippo.